PG,
Thank you for your post. I hope that those following this topic will read your reply over several times.
Same complaints regarding other top travel teams have occured here from time to time, or on other sites, about how big travel teams (also known as businesses) tend to "screw" kids over and make lots of money in doing so. How does anyone know who made what and what their profits were? Does anyone have any CLUE how hard it is to run this type of business. And always keep in mind that it is a BUSINESS. People are in business to make money. It's their business how they generate that profit and no one knows how unless they opened up their books and read their tax reports.
10 years ago my son joined a travel team, it was 3000 for the summer, that was TEN years ago. Included everything from soup to nuts and great exposure. However, not everyone got the recognition from top college programs that their folks thought they deserved, and therefore the program wasn't worth the money they paid and didn't do their job. The complaints were endless, game after game. The shame of it was the kid was a really nice kid. But I think that it was that as players that came from smaller private HS programs and dominated, they had trouble dominating against some of the better travel teams in the state let alone in the country.
Now here we are 10 years later with some of the same type of complaints, which BTW, I only see from a few, and most likely the same situation, the player just may not have been as good as the parent views the player. That's not to say that I myself have not worn those rose colored glasses on occassion, but I don't ever remember placing blame and posting anywhere my son got the shaft, even the few times he did.
Maybe placing your son in the APPROPRIATE program is the key.
FWIW, I know the negativity in this topic has bothered some and I am glad that PG has posted the above, because he is not alone in what he has conveyed.
If I had to do it all over again, I would do the same, with slight adjustments as to the year. We didn't bother with those high profile travel teams until son was in HS. Yes he had some very good skills, but those skills can only be developed when you play on a regular basis. We were in one such situation in middle school where only one or two teams in the organization played tournaments, and beleive it or not, mine wasn't even on the "best" team. That was kind of reserved for the owners "favorites" and some of the older more dominate players. Did we care, no, son was playing every game in any position. The one time he was chosen to play in a tournament on the "better" team as a pitcher he sat.
You do not have to and it is not necessary to pay mega bucks for your 6th, 7th, 8th or even 9th grader to play. The only way you get better is playing and cost in summer or fall can be managed. Yes, you could have spent that money sending your son to those ACC camps in hopes they would notice them, but ask yourself, at this point and time does your player have the skills for those programs to be noticed?
Most players do not.
The problem is that nowadays most folks think that they have to do what everyone else is doing, you know, that's keeping up with the Jones!